s

1973, page 1)

•Cement for the building’s floor was poured on Saturday, July 14 (July 19, 1973, page 1)

• The same week the floor cement was poured, the Council passed Ordinance 665 “which authorized spending of a portion of the federal revenue sharing monies according to the proposed use with the majority going toward the new water main system which is being installed.” (July 19, 1973, page 1)

•The building would be donated to the city by the Rod and Gun Club after completion (April 19, 1973, page 11), and

•The Rod and Gun addition was expected to cost about $2,500.

We admit there’s probably a missing 0 in that last figure (2500 or two-thousand five hundred dollars) that we adjust for further down, but in the meantime what’s the context? From page 11 of the April 19, 1973 Stanley Republican, just in case: “…Alderman Fandry reported that the Rod and Gun Club will erect a building in the park adjacent to where the beer tent stands. The building will be partially enclosed and screened and will be used by the club for their Charcoal Chicken feeds during the Fall Festival. The building, which will be donated to the city after completion, is expected to cost about $2,500.

After a lot of discussion over several meetings, it was decided to notify the school board that students and-or faculty members must use the school parking lot and not Fourth Avenue…” Ok, so what you say. Money inflates in value. And that would be right. So what might $2,500 in 1973 be worth today? Well, if the website smartasset.com can be trusted to do the math (and we trust it can, barring contrary evidence) for 1973, then even with an average inflation rate of 3.90 percent and a cumulative rate of

493.24 percent, the purchase power of $2,500 would be $14,831! Adding in the more than likely missing zero to this calculation to see instead what a $25,000 building in 1973 might be worth today, the price for replacing the former Rod and Gun building increases to $148,311, or roughly equal to the insurance on the building, which would make sense. The current city portion of $358,094 financed in part with $250,000 in bonds (not free!), plus a shift of $100,000 saved from 2019 street outlay funds more than double this figure. Donations meanwhile, are not being collected until after the building project now budgeted at $1.508 million (with $1.15 million payed through grant and insurance) “is complete.”

With many currently struggling to pay rent and provide for basic needs, even just the non-grant portion of $358,094 for the current project is 2.41 times the equivalent of the original presumed cost to the Rod and Gun Club of $148,311 when adjusted for several decades of inflation. After being built the building was donated to the city, which then returned it to the Rod and Gun Club, both to manage it and collect fees, per other records. Whatever happened in the following 45 or so years till collapse, this is still just a tenth of the present project cost. The bottom line?

Clearly there needs to be something at the park, but given the above facts and budget realities, is the Chapman Park Community Center building as it is currently designed truly a city need or just a mere want? The Council must decide, and then act. The truth is that the old building can be replaced for far less expense, even with the proper roof pitch to avoid a second disaster—we’re not engineers.